Enka ends Jaguars' 93-game home winning streak

GASTONIA – Enka did something Monday night no visiting team had done to Forestview in seven years – beat the Jaguars on their home court.

The Sugar Jets (12-15), who had to win the Mountain Athletic Conference tournament last week just to qualify for the state playoffs, eliminated Forestview 62-58 from the Girls’ 3A Western N.C. Sectionals and ended a 93-game home winning streak that dated back to Jan. 18, 2006, a 58-38 loss to East Gaston.

Enka advances to the second round of the sectionals and will meet the winner of the No. 2 Freedom (South Mountain Athletic)/No. 15 West Henderson (Western N.C. Athletic) contest on Wednesday.

The upset of the Jaguars, 2012-13 Big South Conference tournament champions, also ended Forestview’s six-game winning streak in first-round playoff games and avenged last year’s 60-35 loss to the Jaguars.

“We came down here last year and didn’t play very well and sat in the same locker room,” said Enka coach Jerrod Boone. “The girls had a goal to play Forestview again. We’ve been doing this for a while – winning to keep playing – and they didn’t have a care in the world.”

Forestview (20-7) was pushed to the limit in last week’s Big South tournament both physically and emotionally.

The Jaguars erased a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter against Crest to win tournament but lost senior Kaitlyn Taylor to a four-game suspension for an altercation with Charger A’Diyah Ussery.

The N.C. High School Athletic Association upheld the suspension earlier in the day after the school’s appeal was denied, which meant Taylor wasn’t eligible to play against the Sugar Jets.

Forestview coach Kevin Gurganus said he didn’t think the circumstances around the tournament final affected his team.

“A few Mondays we’ve played we’ve been a little flat,” he said. “I was a little worried about that. I brought them in a little early today to shoot and talk about the opponent. I didn’t think we shot the ball all that bad but we didn’t play defense like we normally do. They had a little bit to do with that.”

The No. 10-seeded Sugar Jets built a ten-point lead over Forestview early in the second quarter and didn’t lose it until Lauren Smith hit a 3-pointer with 1:09 left in the first half.

The Jaguars fell behind in the third quarter and went down by 10 points again with 2:15 remaining in the game.

Smith scored seven straight points to get Forestview within four of Enka before fouling out with 36.1 to go.

Bre Armstrong scored 18 points but was injured in the third quarter and didn’t return to the game. Smith finished with a game-high 20, including 11 in the fourth quarter. Nikkyana McCaskill added 12 points.

Whitney DeMoss led Enka with 17 points, 15 of which came in the second half. Sam Olsen had 14 and Ciara Suggs scored 13.